Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-01-24
THE COAL FAMINE.
Former Fuel hamines - Trinity
Building Gotham's Coal Centre.


occasions when the price of coal was
nearly or quite as high as latterly, but
this was due either to strike at the mines
or to the manGuvres of Pennsylvania
combinations, whereby an actual though
artificial scarcity of coal was created.
But the peculiar fact of the late difficulty
Is that there has been an abundance of
coal al the New Jersey depots, only Just
across the river, which was, neVerthe-
less, inaccessible because the
men who shovel what have latterly
come to be regarded as black diamonds
had struck for higher wages. The refusal
or the companies to accede to the just de-
mands of the men engaged in this eX-
tremely labOrious and trying employment
has subjected the poor of New York to a
most OnerOus tax, and the instances are
multiplying In which the niggardliness OF
grasping corporations has imposed upon
the people financial burdens and real dis
tress; they goad their operatives into
strikes, and then impudently ask the peo-
pie to aid and abet them in their dlsre-
gard OF what the promptings of humanity
would suggest to right thinking persons.
Strikes are often encouraged with view
of furtherlng speculatiOns in Wall
street, and II schemes having no direct
connection with the payment OF the SHOW
eiers have nothing to do with the pro-
longing of the strike IN question not
few persons are mistaken. 1t would take
cOld-bloOded miscreants to want only
delay in the settlement of such strike,
because the disturbance would "nelp the
coal mark et," but that we have just such
f1int.hearted knaves among our so-called
''tinanciers" no one who knows anything
of these defiant schemers against the
public welfare Will question, and until
such cOnsplracies are punishable as pc
nal ofenses we shall probably witness
their recurrence at comparatively short
interVals.
TWO FUEL FAMINES.
Before coal came generally into use IN
this country there were two fuel famines
in New York, and both were caused by
war. During the revolution wood became
very scarce in this city. The Baroness
Won Reidesel, the talented wife of Ger
man officer in the British service, and
commander Of the German contingent in
the battle of Saratoga, fled to New York
after the disastrous defeat of the invaders,
and quarters were assigned to her in
Wall street, not far from the headquarters
Of the British army, on the site of the
banking house that now occupies the cor
ner of Hanover street, just opposite the
Custom House. Every attention
was paid to this brilliant lady,
but she found it impossible to keep warm.
1t cost So to "a per day in specie to supply
her rooms with wood, ana often it was
not Obtainable at any price. She COM
planned to some of the British officers,
and they CALAMITY issued orders that the
trees standing near the house, some of
which were older than the settlement of
the city, should be cut down for her beue-
fit. The wood burned in those days were
oak, hickory, ash and hard maple, chiefly
hickory and maple. When the British
first took possession of New YORK, after
the battle of Gowanus, it was easy for
them to obtain wood from the neig boring
shores of Long Island New Jersey and
. Westchester county, but they soon ex-
hausted the supply near at hand, and
the parties sent ten or fifteen miles into
the Interior were frequently captured Dy
the detachments of American soldiery, q
tfact that tended greatly to discourage
such expeditions, while the Provost Mar
shall OF the city levied a heavy tax on all
.wood brought into the city by civilians.
This scarcity of fuel lasted for about six
years, or until about year before the
evacuation of the city by the British, late
in 1888. Another instance OF
fuel famine occurred during the
second war with Great Britain.
During one winter the harbor of
New York was blockaded by a British
Meet. The season was extraordinarily
severe and the supply of fuel soon ran
low; no coal was yet in use; wood was
the sole reliance, and this was brought to
the city in sloOps from up the Hudson
river and elsewhere. But the British
men-Of-war now blockaded the East
river and also the Narrows, and the ice
1 in the Hudson shut Oft the supply from
& the north. In this emergency the citizens
petitloned the Common Council for per
mission to cut down the trees on the Bat
lery, along Broadway and in Wall street,
and the request was granted.
Coal did not begin to come here from
the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania
until about 1880, or eight years after 1t
fbegan to be used in that State. 1t was
brought by water to New York. Until
about 1915, however, wood disputed with
coal the palm OF popularity as a fuel, but
wood gradually grew scarcer and dearer
and was finally abandoned. The Ordi-
mary price for the best hickory between
1880 and 1910 was So a cord, two cords be-
ing equal in heating power to one ton of
coal. The shares of coal companies, by
the way, were the first stocks dealt in on
The New York Stock Exchange, and the
Transaction in Delaware and Hudson
stock led to a serious quarrel in the eX-
change, resulting in a DETECTION from
that body and the establishment of
another board. There were in those early
days only sixty members Of the Stock
Exchange, whereas there are now 100
THE CENTRE OF THE COAL TRADE.
The principal centre of the coal trade
In New York city is the Trinity building,
on Broadway, overlooking Trinity
churchyard, where rest the remains of
poor betrayed Charlotte Temple and the
gifted Alexander Hamilton, that flower of
early American politics. who was cut
down untimely in a foolish duel with
Aaron Burr, and many OF the old New
Workers, once well known in the quaint
aristocratic houses of a former and now
shadOwy epoch. This hive of industry,
thus strangely reared, as it were, cheek
by jOwl with scene that sedate and
philo sophical Addison might have con-
templated with interest, fairly swarms
with coal dealers, coal brokers and trans
porsatiOn agents. The building was
erected about 1854 at a cost OF $50, 900,
md was then considered the finest com
meroial building in the city. At
first 1t paid a total return
in rents of from $4,000 to $4,000
year. This has since increased
10 $4,000, or from 60 to Is per cent
year on the original cost. In this build
Ing large coal auctions have been held,
while others have taken place at the Coal
Exchange and at the Offices OF the Lacka-
wanna company. Another building quite
largely used by the coal dealers is Cyrus
w. Fields fine structure at ! Broad way